[kj] ot - you may not vote

[peter.west410]

What a load of rubbish.
You are suffering from white middle-class guilt.

So a policeman visits an elderly coloured man to
enquire about voting irregularities ,And you announce that minorities are
being suppressed.It sounds like the policeman was trying to stop
irregularities ,not the otherway around.When people vote,they need
identification,If they aint got it they cant vote
    You allege lots of things,But when I analyse them,There is no substance
to them,You don't even say who these oppressors are supposed to be.
    Another thing,How can there be an ethnic minority compromising 84% of
the population of Detroit........think about it.
    The way you talk about ethnic minorities is a disgrace,They are not the
non-thinking ,Easily manipulated group of people you portray them to be.
  You are using them for your own means.


NAACP CHAIRMAN JULIAN BOND CALLS FOR
ELECTION PROTECTION TO DEFEND VOTING RIGHTS ACT

Julian Bond, Chairman of the Board, National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has called on
Attorney General John Ashcroft to take steps to protect minority
voters against practices meant to deceive or intimidate minority
voters during the elections this fall.

Bond said a report on voter intimidation and suppression
released by the NAACP and People for the American Way
shows that deliberate efforts to deceive or intimidate voters into
staying away from the polls continue to emerge in major
elections.

The report, entitled, "The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter
Intimidation and Suppression in America," documents several
decades of race-based efforts to deter minority voters, including
African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans from casting
their votes.

Bond said: "We are calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft,
state attorney generals, political parties and election officials
everywhere to halt these tactics, to closely monitor groups in their
communities with a history of voter suppression, and to send a
clear message that America guarantees that every voter can cast
his or her vote without running a gauntlet of hostile forces or dirty
tricks, and that every vote will be fairly counted."

Tactics cited in the report include; asking minority voters to vote
on alternate days, demanding forms of identification not required
by law to vote, the use of phony voter purge lists containing
legitimate voters, and harassment of voters at the polls. "Minority
voters bear the brunt of every form of disenfranchisement,
including pernicious efforts to keep them away from the polls",
said Bond.

He said, "When the 1965 Voting Rights Act eliminated literacy
tests and the poll tax, the enemies of democracy turned to other
means."  This year, with widespread predictions of a close
national election, Bond said, "We are reminding voters, election
officials, and the media about the kinds of dirty tricks that can be
expected.  We must be prepared to confront and defeat them."

The report said that in South Dakota's June 2004 primary, Native
American voters were prevented from voting after they were
challenged to provide photo IDs, which were not required by state
or federal law.

This summer, Michigan state Rep. John Pappageorge (R-Troy)
was quoted in the Detroit Free Press as saying: "If we do not
suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this
election. African Americans comprise 83% of Detroit's
population."

Most recently, armed plainclothes officers from the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) questioned elderly
black voters in their homes as part of a state investigation of
voting irregularities in the Orlando March 2003 mayoral election.
Critics have charged that the tactics used by the FDLE have
intimidated black voters, which could suppress their turnout in this
year's elections.

Founded in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest and largest
civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members
throughout the United States and the world are the premier
advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter
mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and
private sectors.
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